258 VALUE OF THE EARLY FISH. [CHAP. vi. 



is the chief industry that the bulk of the coast population 

 depend upon for a good sum of money. The fishing is the 

 bank, in which they have opened, and perhaps exhausted, a 

 cash-credit ; for often enough the balance is on the wrong 

 side of the ledger, even after the fishing season has come and 

 gone. In other words, new boats have to be paid for out of 

 the fishing ; new clothes, new houses, additional nets, and 

 even weddings, are all dependent on the herring-fishery. It is 

 notable that after a favourable season the weddings among the 

 fishing populations are very numerous. The anxiety for a 

 good season may be noted all along the British coasts, from 

 Newhaven to Yarmouth, or from Crail to Wick. 



The highest prices are paid for the early fish, contracts 

 for these in a cured state being sometimes fixed as high as 

 forty-five shillings per barrel. These are at once despatched to 

 Germany, in the inland towns of which a prime salt herring 

 of the early cure is considered a great luxury, fetching some- 

 times the handsome price of one shilling ! Great quantities 

 of cured herrings are sent to Stettin or other German ports, 

 and so eager are some of the merchants for an early supply 

 that in the beginning of the season they purchase quantities 

 unbranded, through the agency of the telegraph. On those 

 parts of the coast where the communication with large towns 

 is easy, considerable quantities of herring are purchased fresh, 

 for transmission to Birmingham, Manchester, and other inland 

 cities. Buyers attend for that purpose, and send them off 

 frequently in an open truck, with only a slight covering to 

 protect them from the sun. It is needless to say that a fresh 

 herring is looked upon as a luxury in such places, and a 

 demand exists that would exhaust any supply that could be 

 sent. During one day in last September what was thought 

 to be a hopeless glut of herrings arrived at Billingsgate ; the 

 consignment was so vast as quite to alarm the salesmen of 

 that market; but their fears were groundless, as before noon 



